 December 12, 2007
| Topic: |
Third Parties & Past Lives: Exploring the Ethical Statute of Limitations on Misconduct |
| Presenter: |
Tricia Bertram Gallant, Academic Integrity Coordinator, UCSD |
| Location: |
SDSU Foundation: Sky Park |
| Discussion & Questions: |
There has been a recent flurry of charges of misconduct on dissertations/theses completed both recently and in the distant past by students who have long since been granted their doctorates or masters degrees. Some of these charges have been levied against high profile personalities, such as the President of the Southern Illinois University system. These charges bring up several ethical questions for consideration in relation to the responsibility of third parties and appropriate responses to charges of "ancient" misconduct, including:
1a. What is the ethical responsibility of dissertation/theses advisors, academic departments, and the institution itself for research misconduct or plagiarism by the student authors?
b. Does/How does this translate to the responsibilities of book publishers and journal editors for the books and papers they "approve" and publish?
2. What is the ethical responsibility of the institution to deal with past misconduct, as in the case of the SIU President who is being accused of plagiarizing his masters thesis and doctoral dissertation over 20 years ago? Or the multiple masters engineering grads from Ohio University? What should institutions do in these cases where the theses/dissertations were originally approved and the student long graduated?
3. For the person who is accused of past misconduct, what is the right thing for him/her to do? Does the "right thing" change when the person is in a position of power, influence or authority, particularly within an institution of higher education?
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| Readings: |
On the Southern Illinois University Case of President's Plagiarized Dissertation: |
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| On the Ohio University Engineering Masters Theses Case: |
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